Earlier I had submitted an idea for the replay feature (see URL below). This morning I came up with a name for the idea, which is “The replay, Instant Start Chart”. TSS might want to use that name if they ever put that feature into their replay. However I just came up with a better idea. Details continue below.

First off, for a quick review, the “Instant Start Chart” would be a standard chart that the user pulls up that the user can click on anywhere and it instantly starts the replay from that point under the assumption that the user wants to reuse their standard parameter settings for the replay (which I think would be almost always the norm for most traders).

Here is the improvement. Instead of having a special chart, the user can instead use any chart in any workspace in any compression. In my case I have 9 charts working from 10-second bars right up to daily bars. I have two workspaces with this setup (each with a different symbol). So all the user has to do to start a replay is put their cross hair on the bar they want for the instant replay start (any bar in any of these charts) and click the left mouse button and hold it down so the hint box comes up and then press the function key that is used to start the replay from that point. After that function key is pressed all charts automatically start showing the replay from where the user indicated they wanted it to start. Obviously the workspace must be opened in offline mode where there is no data feed coming in. If the user pauses the replay it just stops and stays where it is currently located. However, if the user actually stops the replay then the full set of data would have to reappear with the last bar on the chart being the last set of data available and this is because the user may want to restart the next replay run from a later point in time for that day.

Okay so that is great and if TSS puts in this feature for the replay I will have a good motivator to upgrade from MC 2.1.999.999. However if the replay is slow and cumbersome to restart at new locations in the chart (meaning more than 2 or 3 key strokes) there won't be much of a motivation.

I should note that there is more to this feature. When the user has carefully located the cross hair and pressed the left mouse button down and the hint box is out there with all its useful data why not program up a second function key that sends the hint box data out to some specially assigned GVs. Then the User can grab this data in their studies. They can save it and if it changes they can trigger a new action in their studies. This can create an interactive input to their studies. It creates a whole new powerful world for the trader/programmer. Right now I use arrows and text box highlights to do this but this idea creates a new enhancement to what I am doing.

That’s it! Enough long winded typing for today. There is more money in trading.
John.

It just occured to me that if the secondary idea of submitting GVs from the hint popup window was ever used, it might be useful for the study to know what chart this was submitted from. I just looked through the contents of the hint popup and there is no direct indication as to what chart it is being displayed on.

The alternative:
Look at the chart, decide on restart location, Position cursor to get the time, try to memorize the time you want to start, press a key to bring up the start location popup, key in the date which is at least 6 key strokes, try to remember the time, key in the time which could be up to 6 key strokes, click a button to accept it (assuming you do not have to go back and look up the time again), replay is running.

You can decide if it is a good idea just by looking at the size of the paragraph above. The alternative idea is way too slow and especially so if the trader does 20 replays every night.

I programmed a replay simulation using my database program for my own use as a trader and here are a few of its features that may be of value to TSS. I hardly use it because it is too slow as a result of the fact that the initial feature mentioned above is missing. That is the bottom line. If TSS does not make the replay fast and easy to use the traders may not use it and thus will be telling new customers about this.

Of note: my simulation simply moves the chart (actually moves two charts in sync with each other). I have to preplan the replay points and it can jump both charts to these replay points (forward or back). I select them from a database list that is automatically generated from lines placed on the chart. I found that the preplanning process was too time consuming and I stopped using it and this is why the initial feature of this post is needed. It would fix this problem and I would use the replay pretty much every night.

Special note: the replay can be used to teach students and this may be the biggest value to TSS of all. (more multichart sales). What would be really cool would be if the trader could take snapshots for teaching classic situations and they could grab these from a special database. So they could either replay the day just past or any snapshot day. The snapshot database would have a short description and a memo field along with date and time of the original replay start maybe. An instructor could put teaching notes in the memo field.

Features:

I could press 1 through 4 to change the speed of the replay.
(generally the trader is going to want normal speed or faster).
(I am not sure how you would set the increments in speed).
(bars must look exactly the same at all speeds or your reply is useless).

I could press a button to immediately go back to the replay start point.

I could press a button to jump back or forward X bars.
(for the TSS replay maybe forward could be F+1, F+2, F+3 etc
(for the TSS replay maybe backward could be B+1, B+2, B+3 etc)
Note: The bars used would match the way it was started (see post #2).

Of course with a proper replay all charts would move in sync just like the normal trading day with the ticks coming in.

Actually come to think of it, it would seem to me that the left mouse button isn't really needed for the replay fast start. It should be three easy steps instead of four.

To explain, I do not know what others do, but in my case, I have the cross hair on at all times (with time and price tracking as well) and at the bottom I always see the date and time. Therefore if MC has that info available then I would assume it should be as simple as

1/ the trader putting the cursor on the chart they want to use as the starting chart

2/ they position the cross hair vertical line so they see the time they want it to start replay and